PlainSpeech Messages | Find YOUR way to GRACE.
I recently read a message I’d given in 1984 and felt a mixture of embarrassment and surprise. Embarrassed because it seems inadequate now, and surprised by how much my worldview has changed. Twenty-five years from now, I might read these messages and have a similar reaction. I offer no guarantee that my work or words will endure the eroding effects of time. I can only assure you these thoughts have been helpful to me, and perhaps a few others, today. With that qualification, I offer them to you.
~ Philip
NEW!
Money (6) Wealth Is a Tool to Be Used, Not a Treasure to Be Hoarded
When I was nine-years-old, my parents moved to a stately old house on the south side of Danville, which is how I acquired my southern accent. The house had been built in 1913 for a Quaker minister and had a double parlor where Quaker weddings were held. When I was...
Money (5) Wealth and Vocation
When we had our house renovated twenty years ago, I had bookshelves built in my office, which are now stacked with books in haphazard piles. They were once arranged by topic, but now they’re arranged by convenience, the books I never read toward the back, and the ones...
Money (4) Wealth and Decadence
I was up on the ladder last month cleaning our gutters and noticed our 30-year roof that was installed 18 years ago already needs replaced. The month before I had replaced our 80,000-mile tires after 49,000 miles, and just before that I replaced a half dozen LED light...
Money (3) Wealth and Morality
I had a neighbor growing up whose name was Roger. We were the same age, maybe 7 or 8, and we shared a sandbox, a sort of communal sandbox, which we shared with several neighborhood cats. Every morning we’d clean it out, then play cars, building highways, tunnels, and...
Money (2) The Myths of Wealth
For years, I preached stand-alone sermons, but after a while noticed I was whaling away at the same subject every Sunday, so began doing series preaching, carefully selecting varied themes so as not to repeat myself. But the weakness of series preaching is the...
Money (1) The Business of Our Lives
An old friend came to visit last week. We were sitting outside in our screenhouse, and the subject of money came up. My friend said, “I love money,” and I immediately thought of the comedian Steve Martin, who said, “I love money. I love everything about it. I bought...
Good Goodbyes
I was chatting with a man recently about the things we should know but aren’t taught, the things we must learn on our own. Most of us weren’t taught about finances, we just mimic the spending habits of our parents, be they good or bad. My mother was frugal, and my...
My Father’s Ice Cream Ministry
Welcome to meeting, Friends. On this day we remember and give thanks for the presence of ice cream in our lives. Catholics believe in transubstantiation, that when the priest offers the Eucharistic prayer, the bread and wine change in substance to become the actual...
Graduation Day 2025
Good morning, friends. Today we are celebrating our graduates and women, which presents me with an abundance of preaching possibilities. A few weeks ago, when I was thinking about this morning, I thought to myself, “If only there were a Bible story about graduation...
A Good Word About Gratitude
It is so nice to be back at Fairfield. Last weekend we were in San Antonio watching our son graduate from college. Joan had flown down four days earlier to babysit our grandson Miles so Sam and Kelsea could pack for their move to Fort Campbell. I stayed back here to...